Campfield spitballs Phil Bredesen for the Senate

State Sen. Stacey Campfield — a guy that Phil Bredesen confides in, surely — is spitballing the possibility that the former Tennessee governor could jump into the Senate race if the primary between U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and state Rep. Joe Carr were to heat up.

In a posting to his blog last week, Campfield lays out a pretty good argument for Bredesen to make a run for the Senate. Campfield predicts (probably accurately) that a defining issue will be health care, a Bredesen specialty, and Campfield says (probably also correctly) that Bredsen is the only Democrat in Tennessee with the name recognition and approval ratings to mount a credible challenge.

But if Bredesen gets the bug to run again, it does seem possible that he could step into the ring, especially if it looks like Carr might snatch away the Republican nomination. Like most successful politicians, Bredesen knows the importance of timing, and it’s unlikely he’d have a better opportunity than one created by a bruising GOP primary.